Tag: march

Their Eyes Were Watching God

gr4c5Leave a comment

Zora Neale Hurston. Their Eyes Were Watching God. New York: Harper & Row, 1990.

Janie Crawford is a woman on a mission to find love. Married off by her grandmother at a very young age, Janie is convinced marriage means love. When that isn’t the case she moves on to be the wife of Joe Starks who views her as nothing more than eye candy, a trophy to hang off his arm. After the death of Joe, Janie meets a younger man who goes by the name Tea Cake. Tea Cake convinces her to leave town with him and run off to the Everglades. Convinced she has found love at last Janie bends her personality to suit the new relationship she has entered. One of the most dramatic aspects of Their Eyes Were Watching God is that it does not have the ending one would expect. However, it is a pleasure to wade through the thick dialect and watch Janie grow.

Book Trivia: Their Eyes Were Watching was not an immediate success. At first it was highly criticized for not painting the “true” picture of southern black culture in the 1930s. Many argued it didn’t “protest” their conditions enough. It was only after other prominent individuals like Alice Walker initially, and later, Oprah Winfrey, embraced it did others sit up and take notice. It has been perpetually in print since 1978.

Author Fact: Hurston was at one time in her life a librarian.

Favorite lines: “An envious heart makes a treacherous ear” (p 5). “There are years that ask questions and years that answer” (p 20). I could have found a hundred other golden nuggets to mention…

Interesting: According to the introduction, in 1971 Alice Walker was teaching Their Eyes Were Watching God at Wellesley when she found out Zora Hurston was buried in an unmarked grave. She took it upon herself to find Hurston’s final resting place to put a marker on it.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Florida Fiction” (p 89). Yup.

Grain of Wheat

gr4c5Leave a comment

Thiong’o,  Ngugi Wa.  A Grain of Wheat. Portsmouth: Heinemann, 1968.

A Grain of Wheat takes place during Kenya’s struggle for independence from British rule in the 1950s. It centers around four central African characters and one British administrator. The central theme of the story is deceit both on a national and personal level. Two examples:
Ngugi’s main character is Mugo, a quiet Kenyan who is sent to the concentration camps. He is a complex, yet human character in that he is seen as a hero in the concentration camps but once released he sides with the British as a traitor.  Another strong character of A Grain of Wheat is Gikonya, another detainee from the concentration camp who is released early only to find that his wife has been unfaithful and has a child with another man.

Favorite quote: “Gikonyo greedily sucked sour pleasure from this reflection on which he saw as a terrible revelation. To live and die alone was the ultimate truth” (p 117).

Author fact: Ngugi Wa Thiong’o was detained for one year in a Kenyan prison in 1979.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “African Literature in English” (p 16). Oddity: Pearl indexed the author as James Ngugi (baptism name) but in the text uses his formal African name.

Cosi Fan Tutti

gr4c5Leave a comment

Dibdin, Michael. Cosi Fan Tutti. New York: Pantheon Books, 1996.

You know those books that are described as romps? This is one of those books. Not uproariously funny, but definitely entertaining through and through. Do I dare call this a murderous and mysterious comedy or a comedic murder mystery? To me, Cosi Fan Tutti is one and the same. It’s a twist on Mozart’s opera of the same name. Everything has been twisted – the plot, the characters, the outcome.

Aurelio Zen himself is a man of mystery. I found myself asking, “is this guy for real?” more than once. For starters, he works for the Ministry in Rome but asked for a transfer to Naples to avoid doing any real police work. In addition, in his private life he goes by the name Alfonso Zembla only because a deaf widow misheard his introduction at a party and he never bothered to correct her. He takes advantage of the alias because it’s fun. When this same widow asks Zen/Zembla to help dissuade her daughters from marrying beneath their status (to believed Mafia associates) he is more than happy to help…except his real job needs him. Several VIPs have gone missing and there is a havoc being wreaked by a couple of garbage truck crews. It only gets more bizarre from there.

Book Trivia: Cosi Fan Tutti isn’t a series per se, but Aurelio Zen is a reoccurring character. He’s considered an antihero. Makes sense.

Author Fact: Dibdin died in 2007 but one last ‘Zen’ book was published after his death in 2007. Interesting.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Ciao Italia” (p).

Raising Holy Hell

gr4c5Leave a comment

Olds, Bruce. Raising Holy Hell. New York: Harry Holt & Company, 1995.

At first glance this book scared the crap out of me. For starters, the cover. It’s an illustration based on a photograph of John Brown. It’s blurry and staring and Mr. Brown looks like he’s on fire. Maybe he is? I’m not sure. Then there’s a blurb from Robert Olen Butler on the back, “…is a brilliant novel about the complexities of hatred…the hatred of hatred…” The hatred of hatred sounds, well, harsh. But it’s the truth.

Defending Raising Holy Hell: I have to say this upfront. I read this along side Cloudsplitter by Russell Banks so I find myself making comparisons instead of writing a review strictly about Raising Holy Hell. Since I have such a persistent problem I think I should list the comparisons, if only to get them out of my system and move on:

  1. Cloudsplitter is long – well over 700 pages whereas Raising Holy Hell is barely over 300.
  2. Cloudsplitter is long winded – long sentences, long chapters, heavy with words and details. Raising Holy Hell is choppy – pages of lists, pages with 2-3 simple quotes. One page contained less than a dozen words “One year before the Ferry. One year and counting down” (p 196).
  3. Cloudsplitter is told from the point of view of Owen Brown, John Brown’s third son. Raising Holy Hell comes at the reader from every angle. Told from the point of view of wives, sons, interviews, prayers, articles, diaries, etc. It’s this last point I want to focus on the most.

Raising Holy Hell is unique. Bruce Olds tells John Brown’s story from every direction. Quotations, mythology, folk tales, court transcripts, lists, poetry,  diary entries, letters, interviews, Bible quotes, historical data, advice, agreements, and the perspectives of stepmother, father, first wife, second wife, eldest son, younger sons, daughters, neighbors, friends, Frederick Douglass, past Presidents, all piece together to tell not only the tale of Harper’s Ferry, but of the biography of John Brown, the man. Perfect for someone with a short span of attention!

Book Trivia & author fact: Raising Holy Hell is Bruce Olds’s first book but not his last.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Biographical Novels” (p 38).

Cloudsplitter

gr4c5Leave a comment

Banks, Russell. Cloudsplitter. New York: Harper Collins, 1998.

Aside from its daunting size (well over 700 pages) this was fascinating to read. Owen Brown, the third of John Brown’s sons, tells the story of his father’s controversial life, beginning with Owen’s own childhood. Cloudsplitter opens with a written apology to Miss Mayo, a young Columbia University student who had been rebuffed by Owen after she traveled to his remote mountainside home in Altadena, California in hopes of inviting him to a reception. After chasing Miss Mayo away Owen is feeling the pressures of mortality, for he is not a young man anymore, and decides to tell his entire story from start to finish. While he is apparently ambivalent to his father’s tragic path of life he is deeply reflective and apologetic, detailing the process of how his father become of of history’s most complex antislavery agitators and martyrs. Owen desperately wants to appear open and honest by saying, “I will tell all” over and over again. Seeing as how Cloudsplitter is told from the point of view of John Brown’s surviving son it is safe to say the story was not meant to be yet another retelling  of the famous yet failed raid on Harper’s Ferry specifically. It is more accurately an illustration of how one man’s religious beliefs can grow to become the catalyst for one of the most well known events in history, in this case, the anti-slave movement. While Banks’ style of writing is, at times, rambling and contradictory (a reflection of Owen’s ability to tell the story) he is able to seamlessly weave nonfiction into fiction; reality into imagined to create a vivid political and cultural 19th century landscape.

One of the reoccurring themes of Cloudsplitter is guilt, guilt driven by religion, guilt driven by family obligation and guilt driven by society. As the child of John Brown, Owen is pulled in many different directions by his guilt and it apparent in every story he tells.

Profound lines: “I was, during those first few weeks…precariously balanced between opposing commitments which were set to create the shape of the rest of my life, and I knew that not to chose between them would lead me inescapably to a resolution that expressed not my will, but my father’s” (p 199), “It was the year that Lyman Epps and I finished our elaborate dance, and I went howling into the wilderness, leaving wreckage and smoldering ruin behind me” (p 536), and “Our specialty would be killing men who wished to own other men” (p 549).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Biographical Novels” (p 38).

ps~ I have read four out of five of the Russell Banks books on my list.

Cross Creek

gr4c5Leave a comment

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. Cross Creek. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1942.

Cross Creek is an examination of place, first and foremost. The early pages remind me of conversations tourists have had with us Islanders; as natives who have stubbornly defended our “inconvenient” and “curious” ways of life. Cross Creek is a rural parse of Florida where alligator, snake and toad hunting is the norm. The bugs bite more than the snakes and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is in the thick of it all. Set in the early 1940s when racial inequality was at an all-time low Rawlings’s story is cringe inducing and belly splitting. Her employees are one step away from slaves and she views them as such. Poverty is a way of life in Cross Creek and yet Rawlings embraces it. Her humor outweighs the poor and the prejudice. If you need proof, read the chapter called “A Pig is Paid For” (p 97). How Rawlings blithely explains the pleasure of shooting her neighbor’s pig is funny.
Cross Creek is full of one-liners. Here are a few to illustrate what I mean. “Madness is only a variety of mental nonconformity and we are all individuals here” (p 2), “It is always bewildering to change one’s complete way of life” (p 18), and “I do not understand how any one can live without some small place of enchantment to turn to” (p 37). My favorite line comes after Rawlings conquers her fear or snakes, “I had done battle with a great fear, and the victory was mine” (p 174).

Author Fact: Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings is a big deal to the people of northeast Florida. In 1983 Universal Pictures released a movie of her life. In 2007 her home at Cross Creek was declared National Historic Landmark (for $6 you can enter the national park named after her and have a guided tour of her house). In 2008 the United States Postal Services released a Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings commemorative stamp.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “100 Good Reads: Decade By Decade (1940s)” (p 177), and also in More Book Lust in the chapter called “Florida Fiction” (p 89), which is misleading because Pearl is including Rawlings in the chapter because of The Yearling, which is fiction and mentions Cross Creek which is not.

Les bouts de bois de Dieu

gr4c5Leave a comment

Ousmane, Sembene. God’s Bits of Wood. Trans. Francis Price. Botswana: Heinmann, 1960.

God’s Bits of Wood has multiple layers. At face value it is a story of a Western African 1947-8 railroad strike. The story focuses on several key players but the most important individuals are Ibrahima Bakayoko, a locomotive engineer who becomes the union leader during the strike, and on the other side of the conflict, Dejean, the French colonial manager. Because the story takes place in several different areas (Bamako, Thies and Dakar) the overall impact of the strike is generalized to a population. The story reaches past an African railroad strike in order to analyze clashes that go beyond worker/employer relations. The social economic and political contexts are analyzed and illustrated. It is more than a description of the initiatives of the railroad workers versus the initiatives of the colonial administration. Feminists have a field day with re-imagining gender relations as the women of West Africa transform themselves into powerful members of society – the social function to the story as it pertains to Sengal and Africa as a whole.

I have to admit it was driving me nuts that I didn’t understand the title “God’s Bits of Wood.” I needed to know what it meant. I was picturing a forest, a campfire, a dilapidated shack. All things wood…in bits. I was happy to learn, early on, that the wood of  God’s bits of wood are actually people. Gotcha.

Favorite lines: “And the men began to understand that if times were bringing forth a new breed of men, they were also bringing forth a new breed of women” (p 34). I think that sums up the entire book.
Other favorite lines: A line from Hadrame, “This strike is a war if eggs against stones!” (p 42).

Author fact: It was interesting to read that Ousmane has been a fisherman, a plumber, a bricklayer, an apprentice mechanic, a docker, as well as a trade union leader and a filmmaker in addition to be a successful writer.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “African Literature in English” (p 16).

Bold Vegetarian

gr4c51 Comment

Kirchner, Bharti. The Bold Vegetarian: 150 Inspired International Recipes. New York: HarperPerennial, 1995.

A cookbook chock full of information beyond ho hum vegetarian recipes. Eggplant is listed in the index but you won’t find a recipe for Eggplant Parmesan. Special recognition must be made to the word “international” in the subtitle because The Bold Vegetarian takes you on a culinary adventure around the world. Oh, the places you will go! In no particular order:

  • China
  • Spain
  • Italy
  • India (this is a given because Kirchner is a renowned author of Indian cookbooks).
  • Korea
  • France
  • Japan
  • Caribbean
  • Africa
  • Thailand
  • Greece
  • Middle East
  • Germany
  • Mexico
  • United States, and because food is subject to the literal and cultural melting pot,
  • International (in other words, who knows where it originated!)

In addition to great recipes that sound different and exciting, Kirchner adds serving suggestions to create entire menus. She offers variations to make a dish vegan instead of vegetarian. She includes anecdotes, illustrations, and trivia to spice up the pages (pun intended). There are even a few notes for the Grow It At Home gardener. All recipes are simple to follow. Cooking directions are aided by a glossary of terms (just in case someone doesn’t know how to blanch, grill or simmer) and a “pantry” list although the term pantry is misleading because I would never consider storing ghee or feta in a traditional pantry. To say these are ingredients to have on hand would be a better way to phrase it. One other small detractor – no nutritional information. In this health-aware age knowing what you eat is all the rage, especially when it comes to foreign foods made from scratch.

Meals I am most looking forward to making:

  • Curry Gyozas (p 38),
  • Chipotle Chickpeas (p 150),
  • Plum Kuchen (p 254)

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called “Fiction for Foodies” (p 88). Even though this is a straight up cookbook Pearl mentioned it because the author, Bharti Kirchner, also wrote a fiction called Pastries: a Novel of Desserts and Discoveries (to be read later).

Flint

gr4c5Leave a comment

Eddy, Paul. Flint. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2000.

Flint starts with violence. The plot itself is a little complicated but the writing is superb. Grace Flint is the proverbial Nancy Drew only not as wholesome. Okay, she swears a lot and she has a plastic face. She is the literary answer to silver screen’s Laura Croft. Dark and dangerous. Working as an undercover agent, Grace is exposed during a particularly dangerous sting operation and nearly beaten to death. That’s how Flint begins. The rest of the book fills in the gaps of who Grace really is (tough, beautiful, haunted) and who she isn’t (social, secure, stable). It follows her on her quest for revenge (because, of course, she survives the beating) as the men who framed her nip at her heels. There are many twists and turns to Flint and it gets a little complicated at times, but the writing and character development keep you on the edge of your seat.

Most frightening “movie moment” is on page 64. I can picture the scene perfectly: A man on the the run from the law must flee again. He needs to get on the move again and soon. As he is just about to feed his dogs he wonders who should take care of them when he runs. He wonders if he shouldn’t them instead.

Best conundrum: Grace is having sex with her separated husband who has a child out of wedlock with another woman. “If your husband cheats on the mother of his bastard son…does that mean you are having an affair?” (p 88).

Author Fact: I was shocked to learn Paul Eddy died of an infection after suffering an aneurysm at the age of 64. He was in the process of writing another thriller and had already written over 60,000 words. Bummer.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “Action Heroes” (p 5).

Blind Descent

gr4c5Leave a comment

Barr, Nevada. Blind Descent. New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1998.

This was the perfect book for a curl up on a snowy, sleeting, icing kind of weekend. The plot is fast paced and uncomplicated so I was able to read it in just two days. Barr’s attention to detail and description of caves and caving had me riveted. Anna Pigeon is a park ranger who has been called to help with a friend’s rescue from a subterranean cave. Anna is extremely claustrophobic and therefor not an experience caver. The location in the cave where her friend was injured is so difficult to get to I questioned why she was allowed to accompany rescue personnel on this dangerous mission. It seemed implausible that she would be allowed to participate just because her injured friend requested her. When rescue turns into murder Anna is determined to solve the mystery. Because Anna Pigeon is a reoccurring character in other Nevada Barr books her character development evolves a little at a time and the reader never gets the full picture of Anna from one book. One other detail I was bothered by was Anna was convinced her friend, Freida, has been murdered and yet she spends a great deal of time concentrating on a second murder of someone she just met. I would have thought the focus would have been more on her friend.

Favorite lines, “Gravity seemed more virulent when one’s back was turned to it” (p28) and “Where there was humor there was a fighting chance of remaining sane” (p 65).
A sign of the times (1990s), “Having babies out of wedlock was an epidemic among the poor and a fashion trend among the rich” (p 128).

Author Fact: Nevada Barr spent time as an actress and, like Anna Pigeon, as a park ranger.

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter called “I Love a Mystery” (p 118).

Postscript ~ Did I mention that I can’t stand it when someone marks up a library book? Someone went through the entire book and changed every male specific word to a more politically correct alternative. Take the word “gunman” for example. Someone crossed it out and wrote “shooter” above it. “Rifleman”  was changed to “Killer.” You get the picture. I find this altering of the text offensive. If Barr wanted to write without gender bias she would have. I practically gloated when I found one “man” unchanged on page 102.

Jane Eyre

gr4c5Leave a comment

Bronte, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. New York: Signet Classic, 1982.

Who hasn’t read Jane Eyre? Who hasn’t fallen in love with plucky, adventurous, moral, Jane? It’s a story everyone knows. When we first meet Jane she is ten years old and living with her deceased uncle’s family. She is despised by her aunt and cousins and considered lower than a servant (at least a servant earns her wages). As a result of Janes’s disharmonious and sometimes violent relationship with the Reed family Jane is sent away to a boarding school. From there Jane is trained as a governess and sent to the employ of Mr. Rochester. Because this is a romance it is obvious Jane and Mr. Rochester will fall deeply in love. Because this is a classic romance it is obvious there will be conflict. The conflict is Mr. Rochester is already married to a mentally ill and violent woman he keeps locked in an attic. Ever virtuous Jane leaves Mr. Rochester until telepathy steps in and Jane feels the need to rush back to Mr. Rochester. She arrives in time to see that Bertha has set the Thornfield mansion on fire and committed suicide. Mr. Rochester is blinded and loses a hand in the blaze. Jane promises to never leave Mr. Rochester again. Their love is triumphant and they live happily ever after. Of course, this is the much-condensed version!
The story of Jane Eyre has been widely criticized for its unrealistic episodes of ghosts and moments of 6th sense. Critics find it unbelievable that Jane is able to travel from one place to another as quickly and as efficiently as she does and it is downright miraculous that she finds a cousin who coincidentally has family wealth to bestow on her. Despite these criticisms Jane Eyre remains a lasting favorite. Obviously, there is a fan base willing to see the value of the suspension of belief.

Author Fact: Charlotte Bronte was one of six children born in the Bronte family. She tried her hand at being a governess (for ten years) before giving it up to write. She died at age 39 in pregnancy. Bummer.

Book Trivia: Jane Eyre has been transformed into movies, plays, operas, symphonies, ballets, and operas no less than 35 times. It has inspired countless retellings, spin-offs and songs. Its popularity resonates with young and old, men and women making it one of the best-loved classics ever.

BookLust Twist: Jane is very popular with Ms. Pearl. It is mentioned four different times between Book Lust and More Book Lust.. From Book Lust it is mentioned in the chapter called “Companion Reads” (p 64). I was to read Jane with Wide Sargasso Sea (of course) by Jean Rhys and The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. Also in the chapter called “Romance Novels: “Our Love is Here To Stay” (p 204). From More Book Lust in two different chapters. First, in the chapter called “Brontes Forever” (p 34) and then again in the chapter called “Fractured Fairy Tales” (p 94).

The Yearling

gr4c5Leave a comment

Rawlings, Marjorie Kinnan. The Yearling. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1939.

I cannot tell you how excited I was to get a copy of The Yearling with illustrations by N.C. Wyeth. It’s the edition I remember from my childhood, with “Penny Tells the Story of the Bear Fight” (p54) being my favorite. I remember thinking it was the perfect illustration of story-telling and could easily take place in a fish house on a remote island.

The Yearling is tragic. It’s the story of Jody Baxter, a twelve year old boy growing up in Florida in the late 1800s. Jody’s family is poor. While living remotely is a blessing for privacy it is hard on employment and sustainable nourishment. The Baxters depend on their farm animals for food in the leaner months. It’s this food supply that drives the story of The Yearling. First, there is the emergence of Old Slewfoot, a bigger than life grizzly bear that manages to kill the family’s prized sow. This sow, Betsy, would have been responsible for offspring that could have sustained the family through the upcoming long winter months. Then, later in the story, there is the dilemma of Flag. Through a series of events young Jody has come to adopt a fawn, a pet he has dearly wanted. As this fawn grows it creates conflict within the family. He begins to eat their hard earned corn supply and the corn, like Betsy’s offspring, was supposed to feed the Baxter family throughout the colder months. Ma Baxter is the iron will of the family. She sees the trouble the family is in are in if Flag continues to eat them out of house and home. When she takes matters into her own hands Jody childishly runs away. His return is one of adult understanding. This is ultimately a story of emerging maturity, of new knowledge and acceptance of sacrifice.

Favorite line: Penny Baxter, Jody’s father is about to set out to hunt Old Slewfoot. He tells his wife, “Don’t look for us ’til you see us” (p 26). This reminded me of a saying I first heard on Monhegan, “Hard tellin’ not knowing.” Classic old timer wisdom.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Florida Fiction” (p 89). I have to admit, aside from the alligator jerky there was little to remind me of Florida…

Armful of Warm Girl

gr4c5Leave a comment

Spackman, William M. An Armful of Warm Girl.New york: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978.

Barely 130 pages, this was a silly little book. I found myself rereading sentences because I wasn’t sure what I just read. The entire text seems to be written in a tongue-in-cheek manner. To sum up the plot of An Armful of Warm Girl, it is about a man who, after being divorced by his wife, flees to New York City where he hasn’t been in over seventeen years. There he bounces from place to place looking for a substitute for his wife. He has many to chose from since upon his arrival to New York he is instantly attracted to just about every young girl in a skirt. After re-establishing a relationship with one such woman he is pointedly pursued by yet another woman. In the end he has to decide between the two.

I didn’t really have any favorite quotes. There is a great deal of gushing and carrying on in the dialogue. It would have been funny to quote some of that, but out of context it really wouldn’t have made much sense. For a sample of what I mean go to page six when Nicholas Romney rings up his adult daughter in New York. She can hardly believe her “darling daddy” is in town…without mummy.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “And the Award for Best Title Goes To…” (p 13.) I love the title of this book, but it would have been more appropriate to call it “Which Girl is the Warm Armful?”

Making of a Quagmire

gr4c5Leave a comment

Halberstam, David. The Making of a Quagmire. New York: Random House, 1964.

The only way American citizens were in touch with the Vietnam War, at all, was through the eyes of reporters. They were responsible for bringing the fighting as well as the politics of South Vietnam into the forefront of public awareness. They were credited for keeping the public more informed than in the dark. It has been said that not many could cite what we were fighting for “in the jungle.” Not many more could find Vietnam on a map. Yet, with the publishing of the Making of a Quagmire David Halberstam sets up to explain just how involved the U.S. was before the conflict erupted. In a comprehensive manner he explains our country’s commitment to the political struggle in South Vietnam. Despite pressure on all political sides Halberstam never compromised his view of the crisis. He refused to publish propaganda to support either side. The Making of a Quagmire is simply unflinching and honest.

Most interesting quote: “In many areas the war had come to a virtual halt because vital units were practicing for the parade” (p 45). I find this interesting because Halberstam goes on to say, “It seemed unbelievable, but it was true; the public was not to be allowed to watch the ceremonies” (p 46).

BookLust Twist: From Book Lust in the chapter simply called, “Vietnam” (p 238). Also in More Book Lust in the chapter called, “David Halberstam: Too Good To Miss” (p 112). Interestingly enough in both chapters Nancy Pearl gives Halberstam’s book the complete title of  The Making of a Quagmire: America and Vietnam During the Kennedy Era yet nowhere on my copy of  Making of a Quagmire is that subtitle printed.

Jennifer Government

gr4c5Leave a comment

Barry, Max. Jennifer Government. New York: Doubleday, 2003.

Jennifer Government is fast paced and thrilling. Max Barry has everything from corporate greed, kidnapping, the NRA, and of course, murder. Set in the plausible near future there is a level of sexiness to the way Barry writes. He makes his characters move around each other in a cat and mouse manner, always flirting while outsmarting each other. In the center is Jennifer Government. She lives in a world where people take the place of their employment as their last names (Hack Nike and Jennifer Government and Billy NRA to name a few), 911 won’t respond to emergencies unless the capability for payment can be established, and taxes are outlawed. Jennifer could be the next Laura Croft, fighting old demons and new crimes. So, when her daughter is kidnapped things get personal. But, that’s the climax of the story. It all starts with Nike cooking up a marketing scheme to build of street cred for a new line of $2,500 sneakers by committing murder…

 Favorite quotes, “but he liked New Zealand, he really did. At first he was apprehensive; it was so far away, tucked down in the bottom of the world like something Australia coughed up” (p 22), and “Companies claimed to be highly  responsive, Jennifer thought, but you only had to chase a screaming man through their offices to realize it wasn’t true” (p 285).

Then there is this favorite scene: Hack is trying to tell the police his girlfriend might have killed someone with a toaster. The agent is not listening, arguing with Hack for not having an appointment (p 69-70). It’s an amusing scene but it gets even funnier. Hack finally gets to see a different agent. Hoping to be taken seriously he again tries to report the murder. Only this time the new agent is preoccupied with the capabilities of the toaster. “Can you do bagels in that?” he asks. I can just see the scene played by Nicholas Cage (as Hack) trying desperately to get someone to check on an alleged murder and Steve Martin as the second agent distracted by a bagel-toasting toaster.

I love that there is a Max in Max Barry’s story. It’s a small part, but a highly effective one.

BookLust Twist: From More Book Lust in the chapter called, “Plots for Plotzing” (p 183).